I look forward to seeing your quilt. The process you describe is roughly what I used for the eagle on my avatar quilt and the 2 dog quilts I've made. I did my enlarging on my printer, taping segments together, but I know people who have had a copy center do theirs. If you have 2 copies, one can be your guide and one cut up as a pattern. For my border collie quilt, I did a lot of thread work in the quilting process to simulate the fur.